Charles Macon Wesson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on 23 July 1878. He later moved to Maryland, was admitted to West Point, and graduated 21st in the class of 54 men who completed the course with the Class of 1900. Following graduation, Wesson was posted to the cavalry, and saw service with the 7th and 8th Cavalry in Cuba and at Fort Riley, Kansas, until 1 July 1903. He was then detailed as an instructor at West Point, where he remained for four years. On 1 July 1907, he was promoted to captain, detailed to the Ordnance Corps, and posted to Sandy Hook Proving Ground in New Jersey.
From November 1907 until October 1918, Wesson held down ordnance duties at Watervliet and Watertown Arsenals, except for brief temporary duty in England from June until September 1914. He was made a major in Ordnance by detail in August 1911, and a temporary lieutenant colonel of cavalry in August 1917. Transferred to Ordnance in October 1917, he was made colonel in the Ordnance Department in January 1918. In that same month he was made commandant at Watertown. From February 1918, he served concurrently as Ordnance Officer for the Department of the Northeast.
By November 1918, he was in France as Chief Ordnance Officer of the AEF in charge of the Construction and Maintenance Division. Here he reverted to his substantive rank of major of cavalry. After a brief two weeks, he was made commanding officer of the facilities at the Atelier de Mohun-surÂyevre, which included the Ordnance Repair Shops for mobile artillery and small arms, Ordnance General Supply Depot Number 6, and the Ordnance Construction Camp. Here he was responsible for salvaging Army ordnance materiel used on the battlefield and processing it for shipment back to the United States. All ordnance personnel and materiel in France were eventually evacuated through this depot. These duties he discharged until July 1919, at which time he was sent to England on temporary duty.
He returned to the United States in August 1919, was promoted to lieutenant colonel of ordnance and assigned to command Aberdeen Proving Ground the following month, but elected to resign his commission before taking that post. He became viceÂpresident of the American Clay Machinery Company, but resigned his position after nine months and reentered the Army as a major of Ordnance on 1 July 1920. His next four years were spent in the Office, Chief of Ordnance. In February 1924, as a lieutenant colonel, he was detailed to the Army War College for 10 months. He then took command of Aberdeen Proving Ground, the post he had originally been assigned to in 1919. His tour at Aberdeen ended in March 1929, at which time he was posted to London, England, as Assistant Military Attache.
Returning to Washington in September 1930, he was named Chief of the Technical Staff, Chief of Ordnance. While there, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his accomplishments as commandant of Watertown Arsenal in 1918 and later in France. In July 1934, as a colonel, Wesson was sent back to Aberdeen Proving Ground for a second tour as its commandant.
Wesson was promoted two grades to major general in June 1938 and named Chief of Ordnance . General Wesson assumed responsibility for the Army's materiel buildup in preparation for World War II. This was the largest American arms production program to that time, and he worked mightily to prepare the Army for its wartime role. General Wesson was awarded an honorary doctorate in engineering by Stevens Institute of Technology in 1941. Retiring from the Army in May 1942, General Wesson then became Senior Assistant Administrator for the Lend Lease Administration, remaining in that capacity until 1943, following which he served two years as Chief of the Foreign Economic Division of that same agency before his second retirement in 1945. General Wesson died at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington on 24 November 1956, at the age of 78.